This invention relates generally to shelving and storage units which may placed upon a desk and used to organize paperwork and other articles on the desktop, and more particularly to a desk top organizer including shelves, dividers, and bins which extends along the length of the back edge of a desk top.
Various free standing or desktop organizers and filing systems having shelves and dividers are known to the art. Representative examples of such units include the shelf file disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 627,954 and the folding or hinged desk organizer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,040.
Shelving units or organizers which can be subdivided into separate compartments, or which may be combined with several differently configured but similar units, are also known. Examples of such assemblies are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,807,572 and 4,193,650.
The dividers utilized in the existing organizers are generally bent wire or sheet metal, and may be mounted in predetermined or variable positions using a variety of methods. Conventional mounting methods are disclosed in the patents referenced above, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,737,046 on a filing system, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,818 on a display device. It is common practice to also use stamped metal book ends as dividers with desktop organizers.
Attention is also drawn to the co-pending U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 07/072,800 relating to a mail sorting system which utilizes method for mounting dividers within slots or apertures at varying positions along shelving units, whereby the dividers are inserted through those slots in the shelves with a portion of each shelf being received within a notch defined by the edge of the divider, and with the divider being held in place relative to the shelf by a tab.
Among the desktop organizers which are particularly designed to rest on top of a desk along the rear edge thereof include those manufactured and marketed by Streamliners of Mechanicsburg, PA and those of the Safco and Fidelity Products companies of Minneapolis, MN. Such organizers typically have 1-3 transverse shelves supported from each end and along the rear edge thereof by a pair of side walls and a rear wall panel. The shelves may be subdivided into compartments using stamped metal dividers having clips which extend along the depth of the shelf and downwardly around the front edge of the shelf, similar to those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,040 referenced above.
Although the above designs for organizers have proven useful for many applications, each presents certain drawbacks which result in some inconveniences to the user. In particular, the user must generally preselect what type or style of desktop organizer is preferred from among a set number of designs, such as open top or closed top, with or without side bins, or side stacks of shelves located in a predetermined position. Consequently, for each style that a manufacturer wishes to produce and sell, separate forms or blanks must be stamped, and the cost of each unit therefore increases proportionately.
The adjustable dividers generally used with such desktop organizers do not have sufficient stability for the dividers to withstand any moderate sideways pressure exerted by supporting heavy objects such as phone books, manuals, or catalogs. In order to provide greater sideways stability, some desktop organizers have horizontal brackets with vertically aligned notches extending longitudinally along the back wall panels which permit the back edges of the dividers to be received within the notches for support. This also increases the manufacturing cost, and makes the divides hard to install on intermediate shelves.